July 2004 News

• He's not heavy, he's my brother
• Sun exposes itself
• Father of ASCII passes on
• Digitised BBC production by 2000
• George Wimpey goes wireless
• UK says Databases R US

He's not heavy, he's my brother

Sun exposes itself

Sun has announced that it will open-source its next-generation desktop technology. This is the stuff that the open-source supporters want to hear even if a supportable product is two years away. Some of the technologies: Jdesktop network components (JDNC) and JDesktop Integration Components (JDIC) - MS equivalents of ActiveX and COM - have already been exposed. Others will be released as part of the 3D desktop Project Looking Glass and 3D Desktop Open Source Project on Java.net initiatives.

Father of ASCII passes on

Many people never knew of Bob Bemer. He was the one that actually made COBOL work and popularise it His most important contribution was the development of the American Standard Code for Information Interchange in 1963. Apart from his intellect I will remember Bob for his sense of humour and self confidence - this was reflected in his car vanity plate - ASCII. I knew Bob and his wife and will miss him for himself - a big man even in CAPITALS. We don't have these "larger than life" characters any more.

Digitised BBC production by 2010

The BBC expect 10% cost cutting of its production process by going all digital by 2010. To do this the BBC will need to revamp its supporting IT systems including the networking, desktop and applications. To support this initiative the BBC has started tests of commercial broadband TV services called interactive Media Player (iMP). Currently BBC has eight digital TV channels, 14 radio channels and an online web site.

George Wimpey goes wireless

Construction firm George Wimpey has implemented wireless networking at its building sites and achieved 25% savings. The costs for wiring, bandwidth and mobile phones have been targeted by introducing digital enhanced cordless telecommunications (DECT) technology. One advantage is the ability to use the handsets for both mobile and in-building calls.

UK says databases R US

The UK government may get indigestion from having too many databases. It seems that every problem can be solved by a new database: children, young offenders, prisoners, births, deaths, marriages, etc., etc. However much data does not necessarily mean that you have any valuable information. This happens through a proper information strategy that addresses quality, accuracy and integrity with a large dose of security.

Shorties

• E-crime could lead to longer e-jail term. The DPP are planning to treat hackers the same as safe crackers.
• They say that fishing is the most popular participant sport in the UK. Phishing seems to be going the same way for the internet.
• Notes suffers from remote command injection flaw in the uniform resource identifier (URI). This is due to insufficient filtering of lotus.exe arguments. IBM recommend product upgrade.
• NT4 support gets extended. MS has plans to offer custom support to those organisations that cannot transition to W2K3 by the end of 2004.
• With substantial IBM support, Linux is beginning to make measurable in-roads into the Microsoft server market space.
• The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) sign £1.4bn outsourcing deal with IBM to modernise processes and supporting systems.
• What a paella as Abbey goes Spanish. Banco Santander Central Hispanico (BSCH) has acquired Abbey National making it the world's 10th largest bank.